ArmInfo.Armenia's gross international reserves decreased in January-July 2020 by 8.1% or by $ 231.4 million (against a decline of 2.5% a year earlier), amounting to $ 2.618 billion, according to the data of the Central Bank of Armenia.
Of these, the lion's share - $ 2.577 billion - are foreign assets in hard currency, and the SDR share in the IMF amounted to $ 41 million. According to the regulator's report, in January-July of this year foreign assets in hard currency decreased by 9.4% (against a 2.4% decline a year earlier), and the share of SDR in the IMF increased 6.6-fold (against a 43.4% decline a year earlier).
Moreover, in monthly terms, the decrease in the gross international reserves was recorded in January-April and June-July, in particular, the largest decline was recorded in January (by 6.3%), followed by an increase in May (by 8.5%), but in June the decline resumed and continued in July. And the share of SDR in the IMF decreased monthly during the first quarter, remaining at the same level in April, then jumped sharply in May, but in June again outlining a subsidence with the preservation of the downtrend in July.
However, the y-o-y dynamics (July 2020 to July 2019) turned out to be ascending: the GDP increased by 18.8% or by $ 414.9 million, with an increase in foreign assets in hard currency by 17.1% and a jump in the share of SDR in the IMF 12-fold. A year earlier, in July 2019 to July 2018, the dynamics were also upward, but the pace of gross international reserves and foreign assets in hard currency was more modest - 7.2% and 7.3%, respectively, and the share of SDR in the IMF declined by 24%.
In July 2020, gross international reserves lingered in a decline - by 1.1% (versus 2% in June), and in their structure, a similar negative dynamics was recorded in foreign assets in hard currency - 0.8% (versus 1.2% in June), with reduction in the share of SDR in the IMF by 19.7% after the decline in June by 31.5%. A year earlier, in July 2019, there was a reversal of the trend from an upward to a downward one: the GDP decreased by 0.8% after the June growth by 4.4%, in particular, foreign assets in hard currency slipped by 0.4% after the June 5.6% growth, but the share of SDR in the IMF, like the current dynamics, decreased by 70.7% after the June decline by 67.6%.
To recall, in 2019, the gross international reserves of Armenia increased by 25.7%, with an increase in foreign assets in hard currency by 25.8% and the share of SDR in the IMF by 3%. In the Q4 of 2019, gross international reserves grew by 18%, with an increase in foreign assets in hard currency by 17.7% and a jump in the share of SDR in the IMF 9-fold. During 2019, an upward trend in the gross international reserves was observed in February-March, June, August-October and December, similar to the periods of growth of foreign assets in hard currency, and the share of SDR in the IMF jumped only in May and October.
It should be noted that the share of bank gold in the gross international reserves of Armenia was zeroed back in December 2003.
